


Poison

by impudent_strumpet



Category: Original Work
Genre: Couple In Danger, Evilness, F/M, Friendship, Healing, Hunger For Power, Jealousy-Driven Abuse, Lust, Physical Abuse, Romance, Sexual Abuse, Torture, Verbal Abuse, Villainy, dating abuse, old grudges
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 07:51:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8658616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impudent_strumpet/pseuds/impudent_strumpet
Summary: EDIT January 2, 2018: ...It's been. Holy crap. TWO YEARS. Since I touched this story.D:But I found some plotholes and decided to fix them, especially since I've been bitten by the writing bug. (I've been reading more in order to get better at writing, but right now I'm stuck in stupid Bran's stupid chapter in A Storm of Swords, so might as well do this now :/ ) I'm not really changing much here, just Rachel's parentage and...well...Zev's target because of that ^^; There's some stuff about it that's as of yet unrevealed, though >:)  *** Hit up the prologue (Chapter 1 here) first for a recap and if you're feeling brave. ***





	1. Prologue

He took deep breaths and held as still as he could. That was what seemed to help, in times like these.  
  
"You are mine...and mine only," came her firm voice.  
  
He was still and silent, even in these times when he wanted to yell, even while his fresh bruises were throbbing and aching.  
  
"I love you," she said, her cold fingertips gently running down his cheek, yet doing nothing to soothe his purpled, battered skin.  
  
"I love you too," he said softly, sadness in his voice. He reached out, tentatively, to touch a black strand of her hair, before his arm dropped by his side again.  
  
"And you will never leave me."  
  
He looked in her cold eyes, in their obscure mixture of light gray, jade, and a hint of dim, lightless blue. Her eyes had always reminded Dante of a raging storm at sea...one that people avoided, and tried to ignore the havoc that was wreaking.  
  


~

  
Dante didn't know exactly how he had finally left the country back then, when he was only sixteen. Maybe on that one night he had reached the breaking point...he had just had enough then, like that much was all he could handle.  
  
He thought he had gotten used to her. He thought he could take it, day after day. He had told himself that as long as he stayed with her and never left her, maybe she would eventually stop.  
  
But looking back at it, it had only gotten worse. The violet and dark bruises on his skin, like storm clouds, that rose on his jawline, cheeks, temples, neck...the dry cracks and cuts left on his lips that blood gushed from when she pummeled him over and over...the ribbons of blood that flowed from his skin where her knife sliced him...the cruel words she flung at him that only grew more biting and venomous... She was so much smaller than him, yet she could be so violent.  
  
In spite of all of that, he thought he could stay with her and endure it. He thought that if he did, it would eventually end. He had to stay with her. He loved her, after all. And she needed him.  
  
But...that night...that painful, terrible night...  
  
They had gone to party earlier that night, where alcohol was. Letizia had gone to get another shot, when a childhood ex of Dante's approached him and, in a drunken stupor, started to hit on him and say she wanted him back. Dante rejected her, silently hoping Letizia would come back already, when the girl gave him a sudden, vodka-soaked kiss on the mouth. Dante quickly shoved her away once he got over the surprise, but...it was too late.  
  
From across the room, Letizia had already seen it. And she looked furious.  
  
In that moment, Dante felt a part of his soul die.  
  
When they got home, Letizia pounded him so hard over and over and screamed at him so much, he was inwardly begging for death. When Letizia took out her knife, he was silently begging that she would just slash his throat and put an end to it. But, no. She didn't.  
  
The memory so pained him inside. That must have been why he left...she had shoved him on the bed, and he had fought and struggled, but he was a sixteen-year-old boy back then up against an eighteen-year-old woman with fire in her eyes and a knife at his throat. The moment he had felt a bead of warm blood on his throat against that sharp, cold knife...the moment he had stilled in terror...was the moment she forced herself onto him and tore him apart. It was all to control him, all to remind him that he was hers and hers only...  
  
Yet it was early that morning that he woke up and packed his things. He took one last look at her sleeping form, at her light olive skin and long raven hair draped over her, before he finally left.  
  
He left to where he would be far away from her, and stayed in careful hiding so she would never find him. He got some people to help him out, but didn't tell any of them the real reason why he was there. He couldn't tell them anything about Letizia. Dante's friends back in his home country had assumed from his bruises and scars that he was getting into fights. And he let them think that.  
  
Meanwhile, now he did what he could to get by. Sometimes staying alive and safe meant drastic measures, but that was what it took.  
  
Though, he couldn't really see why he was still going on. Six years later, he was broken and hurt, doing what he could to live in a foreign country, the same as ever...and that was it, really. What was the point?  
  
But still, he had some hope inside. Maybe that's why he was still going on...to find his purpose.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT January 2, 2018: ...It's been. Holy crap. TWO YEARS. Since I touched this story.
> 
> D:
> 
> But I found some plotholes and decided to fix them, especially since I've been bitten by the writing bug. (I've been reading more in order to get better at writing, but right now I'm stuck in stupid Bran's stupid chapter in A Storm of Swords, so might as well do this now :/ ) I'm not really changing much here, just Rachel's parentage and...well...Zev's target because of that ^^; There's some stuff about it that's as of yet unrevealed, though >:) 
> 
> *** Hit up the prologue (Chapter 1 here) first for a recap and if you're feeling brave. ***

Rachel Tessier laid on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, and every now and then watching the dying sun from outside her bedroom window. Past the sunset was mostly forest, save for a vast clearing past it, and then more forest beyond that, which somehow looked ominous in its own way. Ever since she was little, Rachel had been forbidden to go into the far area of the forest. Though she was seventeen years old now, it still looked perilous to her, yet alluring in its own way.  
  
Hearing the dull creak of floorboards growing louder as her mother approached the room down the hall, Rachel knew night was falling, and so she would have to go to bed soon. She had long been accustomed to this sound in the old house, where she'd been born and lived her whole life in.  
  
Sighing, she tossed her summer reading book, which she hadn't finished, onto her nightstand, undressed, and pulled her nightgown on. She figured she might as well go to bed early, if only to try and take her mind off of things. She climbed into bed, pulled the covers over her, and turned off the lamp.  
  
In her inexplicably brimming anxiety for tomorrow, sleep was hard to find that night for Rachel. She was always nervous before starting a new year of school...and every year it just seemed to be getting worse. In the sordid, crime-filled area that she lived in, the fact that nothing had never happened to her felt more foreboding than relieving. She slid her arms out from under the covers and rested them by her sides on top of the covers, letting the cool night air caress her skin and soothe it from the summer heat. It would get so hot where she lived during the summer. Rachel was glad her bed was right next to the window, so she could have it open at night and stay cool.  
  
The night sky was beautifully clear, with tiny stars twinkling like diamonds, constellations embroidered in the velvet black. Below the treetops, somewhere in the faraway forest was a clear, shining lake, where at night the moon reflected off of, making the surface of the lake gleam like pure silver. It was truly a breathtaking thing to see.  
  
Though this was the last area anyone would want to live in, it was the most that Rachel's single mother, Sarah, could afford. This made Rachel feel bad for and worry about her mother at times. Rachel had never wanted to leave, anyways. This was the only home she had ever known, and where all her family and friends were. They meant the world to her.  
  
She hoped in her heart that they would all be safe.  


 

~

  
Sarah had work in the morning, and was unwilling to give Rachel a ride to the high school she attended when it was within walking distance, although the safest way to school was a long walk. If Rachel cut through a street branching off the one she lived on, however, she could get to school on time...but this was the most dilapidated and perilous street in town, where only the seriously desperate lived. The people who lived there were either crushingly poor despite working two or three jobs, or made a living through things like drug dealing, prostitution, and thievery. Rachel tried to make their way to school through here at sunrise at the earliest, but still...  
  
She had to take this path all by herself.  
  
Last year, in this squalid area, someone had particularly stood out to Rachel. It was a young man, who looked to be in his early twenties, with jet black hair and deep brown eyes. Rachel had no idea why she found this man in particular so striking, but...there was something about him. What drew her in even more was a certain vibe about him...though he usually looked cold and hardened, there was a certain fierceness to him, and a small piece of him that seemed almost vulnerable, in a way... Rachel couldn't place exactly how he had affected her, but something had blossomed in her then.  
  
She sighed. She was relieved to be going into her junior year, and still have two more years...every year, she found herself more anxious to grow up and move forward. She hoped this would last.  
  
In her classes, since it was the first day, the teachers mostly just went over the syllabus and what to expect for the class. Rachel was happy to find that some of her friends were in her classes. But the whole day she felt a sense of foreboding hanging over her. She tried to tell herself that she would be alright since nothing had ever happened to her before, but...it could, still. She knew that anything could happen anywhere, especially in her area...and it haunted her.  


 

~

  
That night, the man received the small, crumpled bag of drugs in his hand and Dante received the money in his. That's how it had been going for the past six years since Dante had crossed the border. It was his main source of income, and it was what he was long used to.  
  
"Thanks," the man whispered.  
  
"No problem," Dante muttered back, and started to walk away.  
  
"Hey, wait a minute," the man called.  
  
Dante turned around and walked towards him. "What is it?"  
  
The man motioned for Dante to come closer, and when he did, he whispered very softly, "You ever been hired to kill?"  
  
"A few times. Why?" Dante asked.  
  
"There's someone I'm...interested in...you think you could off her for me?" the man requested.  
  
Dante instantly was a little reluctant having heard the target was a  _her_. "How much will you give me for it?"  
  
"Enough to get you out of the gutter of despair." The man snickered.  
  
Dante sighed. "What's your name?"  
  
"Just call me Zev," the man replied.  
  
"Who is this that you want dead?" Dante asked.  
  
Zev smiled, a gold tooth shining between his lips. "I want you to kill Sarah Tessier."


	3. Chapter 2

It was the first day of her junior year of high school, and Rachel sat in her history class as bored as could be while the teacher, Mr. Freeman, droned on explaining every last word that was already on the syllabus.  
  
She quickly and secretively texted her best friend Lena, who was also in the class,  
  
 **Blah blah blah no plagiarism yeah we know**  
  
Moments later, a text back from Lena read,  
  
 **Omg he's barely older than us**  
  
When Rachel turned to look towards Lena, she saw her best friend staring dreamily, almost in a daze, at the teacher. She rolled her eyes. As much as Rachel loved her friend, the girl was truly shameless. She always had been.  
  
When the teacher had finished reading the syllabus, he asked, "Are there any questions?"  
  
The class was silent, so he said, "Ok, now open your books to Section 1."  
  
As everyone opened their textbooks, Lena smirked and leaned over the side of her desk towards Rachel. "He can open my book anytime."  
  
"Lena!" Rachel whisper-shouted.  
  
"Do you have a question, Miss Gallagher?" the teacher asked Lena sternly.  
  
"No, Mr. Freeman," Lena giggled.  
  
He stared suspiciously at Lena for a moment, then went back to reading.  
  
Rachel sighed. Lena could be quite a pervert at times. There were plenty of guys she found attractive, so Rachel wondered when Lena was going to snag herself a boyfriend and be content with that.  
  
If that was ever going to happen.  
  
Rachel spaced out then, idly tapping her desk with her pencil, and mused over her own mostly barren love life.  
  
There was...that one, but...was there a chance that was ever going to happen?  
  
Rachel thought it probably wouldn't, but...she also thought you could never be sure. Life had a way of going against everything you expected and doing its own thing.  
  
Still, she thought it would most likely never happen. They had nothing to do with each other, anyways.  
  
Yet, despite telling herself there was nothing between them...  
  
Something about this saddened Rachel.


End file.
